With overall beer sales in decline for the first time in nearly two decades, Corona Light is bucking the trend by increasing its brand awareness among active young people, Elizabeth Olsen reports. Sales to retailers rose 4.8% last year after a 3.6% increase in 2008. "Corona Light is the social brother to Corona Extra," says José Mollá, co-founder and executive creative officer of La Comunidad, the Miami agency that created a 30-second spot for the brand featuring 40 men and women exuberantly partying in Tayrona Nature Park in Colombia. "Its image is more active; it's escaping with your …

Elizabeth Holmes writes that with U.S. consumer confidence at its lowest level since February, retailers are preparing for price wars and big discounts to pull in shoppers as the back-to-school season gets into full gear. The annual ritual is second only to the Christmas season in its importance to retailers' bottom lines. "We anticipate the back-to-school season to be very promotional this year and our competition to be very aggressive," Kevin Peters, Office Depot's president of North American Retail, told investors last week. While other retailers declined to comment on their plans, analyst Eric Beder, managing …

Peter Eichenbaum and Margaret Collins report that the biggest U.S. mobile carriers are working with Discover Financial Service and Barclays on a smartphone system that would replace credit and debit cards. The partnership involves AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA, which has a smaller stake than the larger carriers. "This is definitely a game-changer," says consultant Richard Crone. It seems to make sense for mobile carriers, who already are expert at processing payments, and [for] consumers. "A mobile device is online, real-time interactivity that changes the customer relationship," he says. "A card is dumb." For their part, retailers …